Zac Efron Apologizes For Insensitive Martin Luther King, Jr. Tweet

But once it's on the internet, it lives forever.

Late Monday night after many celebrities and regular people alike had reflected on the impact and legacy that Martin Luther King, Jr. imparted, Zac Efron decided to chime in as well. The only problem? His tweet was a little...

The message was quickly critiqued by tons of people on the platform — and they had a very valid point. Separating those sentiments into two very disparate tweets would not be hard. Tweets are free! There is no limit to tweeting! Plus, one could easily argue that the importance of one of these things is far greater than the other.

And it seems that Zac got the message, because he deleted his original tweet and issued this apology on the same platform:

It's great to see that Zac is a big enough man to admit to his own mistakes, but it also speaks to the overarching issue a lot of people have with those who post about occasions such as Martin Luther King Day. Often, people splice up any number of the quotes by people in order to either use their words to only further their own agenda, or to seem culturally aware and heard on any given day. And few people's quotes are taken out of context as much as Martin Luther King, Jr's.

At the New Republic, senior editor Jamil Smith makes the case that "what we too often get is King positioned in holiday specials and commemorations as some kind of racial Santa Claus, and his birthday presented as the one day on our calendar designated for us to indulge in this kind of blind hope for racial justice." He added that, "Such framing... helps actual enemies of his goals say that they, too, were with King all the way. It allows those enemies to then insist that unless a black civil rights activist behaves like the King that they’ve conjured in their selective memories, then that activist isn’t truly pro-civil rights."

There's a lot people don't quote from King's speeches, and so to hear the same quotes recited over and over again often leaves out the very important messages he had about both capitalism and poverty. But his words are powerful and just as necessary today as they were when he first spoke them, and diminishing his legacy isn't what the national day of remembrance should be about.

While you'd probably like to think yourself wiser than Zac, it's likely that over time each of us has, at least once, co-opted a cultural movement for our own digital gain. And at a time when the voices of people of color are still being lifted to speak out against continuing race issues in this country, it's an even worse idea to celebrate your 10 million Instagram followers in the same breath as commenting on a man who helped lead a movement for equality that we're still working toward today.

So next time, Zac? Maybe save it in your draft folder. Or at least ask a friend before you hit publish.